Jousting at the windmills of hypocrisy, scammers, and other stuff that irritates me.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Ah, intimidation....nice try

So, for those of you who didn't know, I left my previous employer during the first part of December under other than amicable circumstances. They didn't actually GIVE me a reason for firing me, but just implied that it was time for us to go our separate ways. This actually worked out better for me anyway, as the following Friday I had planned to give my two weeks notice anyway, after having interviewed for several positions and been offered two great jobs. So instead of struggling through two weeks of dealing with their idiocy, I've been paid for time that I otherwise wouldn't have been, plus being paid for a couple weeks while working for my new employer. Not a bad deal.

However, last week I received a phone call from a person in a VERY influential position with my former employer. He was my boss's, boss's, boss's boss. Basically a heartbeat away from CEO in the firm. This person had apparently been informed by the spineless sycophants below him that during my employment at the firm, I had the unmitigated gall to actually send some work to my home email account so that I could *GASP* work on it at home. He wrongly advised me that this was a violation of the company's confidentiality policy. I, of course advised him of my role in the group and how my role naturally translated to my doing this, and while I could see their concern, since the workpapers were pretty much check-in-box type things, I didn't see their use in an actual technical environment. Of course, he disputed this, and when it came right down to it, I advised him that my position was such that I had enough fun with the company and I was done with any association with them. As such, the emails would be deleted, if they hadn't already been.

The attempt to intimidate was obvious. By having the director of the entire division call me, it was their attempt to intimidate me into rolling over and allowing them to bully me into not talking publicly about the stupidity I had to tolerate while there. While that's in their best interest, and truly not a big deal to me, this phone call was an impetus to go a step further than I was previously willing to do. My former boss (as well as whoever else was involved in this decision) obviously doesn't know me as well as he thought, if he thought I was going to be intimidated by some pissant executive. Especially an executive/partner that I have zero respect for, had zero dealings with, and who honestly wouldn't recognize me from Adam. Had it been one of the partners/executives that I respect and still hold in high regard, (H & A), my reaction would have been entirely less negative.

But, that didn't happen, and since they wanted to start this, any further communication to or from me will be done through my lawyer.